Journal

2024 - Week 1 Cooking Results

Apparently I caught a stomach flu grocery shopping last week, and I passed it to Shannon later. It had about the same incubation time for each (a day or two or so) before it expresses itself. While I recovered faster, it did change out things quite a bit.

Turkey Lasagna (this is what the Matta’s had for dinner and it sounded quite good)

I substituted 1.5 pounds of turkey sausage, with 2 pounds of Crooked Gap Italian sausage, and I used smoked mozzarella, instead of sliced. I ended up using feta, since I hat forgotten to pick it up in my normal trip, and it did add a bit of fine goat cheese flavor to it. I had to short out that last 1/4th cup of parmesan since, I had to save some for the garlic bread I made, without parsley. It was quite tasty and made for a nice thing to do on New Year’s day.

Sausage

Brats, Good, like fire.

Burger

I dug around in the freezer for a bit, before shopping and couldn’t find anything, so I picked up some grass fed beef at the store. Added some herbs and spices and cooked them up.

I kept it down just fine, my dear wife, not so much.

Hot Honey Peanut Noodles

Delayed! I planned on making this on the night after the morning I emptied myself, but clearly did not.

Irish Stew and Soda Bread

Delayed!

2023 - Week 52 Cooking Results

Sausage

Brats! FTW!

Eggs

Skipped.

Skillet Kielbasa Macaroni and Cheese

I used some 2 year Shelburne cheddar, and some store bought Monterey Jack. I pulled out some Kielbasa from Crooked Gap out of the freezer and moved forward with that. I may have added more bread crumbs, and they weren’t fresh (as I had baked them off before, or not (depends on the batch) and stuffed them in the freezer). It worked out pretty well. I suppose by adding an extra 5 minutes you could’ve toasted the bread crumbs. Anyway, quite nice.

Maple-Glazed Pork Roast with Smoked Paprika

In thinking about maple syrup, I was like meh…so I added paprika to a mixture of dijon, honey and yellow mustard, and run this about the same way. I think that the pork loin they use is thinner than the one I had from the CostCo purchase, so it took quite a bit longer to cook. But I took the whole thing and broke it down into meal type sizes to use over the next while here and put most of it back in the freezer. I served it with mashed potatoes and it was a pretty nice last meal, made by me, for the year.

The boost to the anti-depressant seems to have helped, I’m also going to get a light lamp, as a sort of mini-booster. I’m debating on where to put it. On next to where I do my exercise or where I work. Who knows. I felt good, generally, socializing with family and friends. Other then being uncomfortably warm in one situation, Yule was relatively nice. I got to see my newest niece again, which is nice.

2023 - Week 51 Cooking Results

Sausage

All pork hot dogs. All Good.

Egg n Sausage English muffins

Little pork morning sausage patties that combine with eggs so well. Good Meal.

Burger

Pork, used a bit of the pork seasoning that I bought for the pork loin for Thanksgiving. Combined with some chips with sea salt, locally made butter buns out of the freezer and a good dinner.

Snickerdoodles

These were a bit bigger then they should be and spread out a bit more, each cookie needed to loose about a third of the total volume that I gave them. I was also unsure as to how much sugar and cinnamon should’ve gone on there so some got some deep coatings and others a lighter touch. The method itself was nice, and made sense for what they were doing. Made for Shannon’s work party. They were ok, but a bit thin and wide.

Chicken and Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes

Other than the yellow corn muffin mix, which I really wish would be replaced with something else, this is quite a nice soup and easy to make. I ate the last of the leftovers for Saturday lunch.

Cheesy Bean and Tomato Bake

It’s fine. Clearly a recipe written for a youngster. I adjusted the herbs and spices up, quite a bit.

Spicy Chili Coconut Shrimp Noodles

Not my first time making this, won’t be my last. I was forced to swap out the spicy chili noodles with soy and scallion, since that’s what I have (I suppose I could have done sweet and spicy), but it still worked well. Made for a good dinner.

Earlier in the week, I had a discussion w/my mental health provider and we discussed SAD or MDD with a Seasonal Pattern on the most recent Depresh Mode. And we talked about how I noticed a pattern between thanksgiving and usually the first snow, where I do have an extra dose of sadness during that time. I’m often brought to the picture of me about to brulee and how much I remember feeling dead inside during that period of time. I had my dosage upped a bit and may go back down after winter is over. This is the first change in quite a while (almost exactly 5 years). Things I learned. First, many people up their dose in the winter, second I don’t have to live with it.

2023 - Week 50 Cooking Results

Sausage

All pork hot dogs, cause that’s what I grabbed. All Good.

Taco Salad

Yep, good.

Hearty Beef Stew

I just felt like making a good beef stew. I started off fairly early in the afternoon to allow for the long simmering times and not having to eat to late. I even asked Shannon if it was ok if I make it, as she is not generally a fan of big hunks of meat. It’s the kind of slow cooking that feels good right now. I get to take a bit of time here and there and menu plan while things are cooking.

While I had doubts about the liquid level, it did work out and have enough to add the potatoes and carrots after the first simmer period in the oven. I added a bit more stock cause I had a bit more beef (hunks were under or over what I wanted). After adding some peas and corn, I brought the flavor profile up by added quite a bit of pepper and a bit of salt. Good meal, good use of a Saturday.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

So I was looking at what to make for the coming week and this one came to mind again, cause of the sweet potatoes. Here I am thinking I’ve had this recently, but little did I know. Quite good, good as leftovers too.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

While normally I would use elbow, I had an open bag of Ditalini, so I used that instead. I added a bit more mustard and smoked paprika, and it came out very well like it always does.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Always good. After taking a fairly long nap, as I have been doing this, recently, I got up and got going on this. Quite good.

I have been taking a lot of naps in the afternoon, even after getting, what counts for me, as a good night of sleep, I thought that perhaps I was anemic again. After a quick blood test (thanks doc!), this was proved to be not the case. I may have misread some of the early results. I’ve reached out to my mental health nurse practitioner, and am hoping for a bit of a bump here shortly.

2023 - Week 49 Cooking Results

Sausage

Good as always.

Mortadella Grilled Cheese

I was listening to Make Me Smart and they were talking about trends and they talked about mortadella, and this reminded me that I haven’t had a mortadella sandwich in a bit, so I added this for this week. I picked up from my favorite provisioning shop and combined with some wonderful cheese and had a nice grilled cheese. As a note they were talking about this being a Millennial thing, but as someone who is solidly (but on the young side) of Gen X, I may not necessarily fit the norm as food is really important in my life. It was quite good.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Delayed!

Chile Relleno Casserole

I noticed the other day that I had some papers in the bottom of the freezer. Now these were probably a bit old, as I’m pretty sure it was one of the last times that Sean was at the farmers market. So I dug those, already roasted, out of the freezer and added them to this for a nice combination. I also added some of the leftover pork, for an added touch. This worked out pretty well.